After sleeping like the proverbial log, I woke to a spectacular Croatian day delivering bright sunshine and a sparkling Adriatic out the window. Breakfast is included in the tariff here at Hotel Vis (but wait till later in today's blog when it has a name change to Fawlty on the Adriatic!) so it was an invitation to fuel up and head out to enjoy the sights and crowds, and to find out a bit more about the charming Dubrovnik.

The well positioned bus stop right outside the hotel (and the 3 day bus and museums pass) meant it was easy to head to the Old Town and join the crowds. Our first activity was the wall walk, a many-staired trip around the battlements of the old town. I didn't take many pics this time as it all looks pretty much the same as in September 2013 (including the blue sky and sparkling Adriatic, terracotta tiles and alleyways) when my Balkans trip and 22 hours in Dubrovnik inspired me to return.

That said I have included some happy snaps to recorded today's visit - pretty standard view of three dimensional nature of the town, the entry to the Maritime Museum for the interest of those 'old salts' in this audience (no pics were allowed inside but I can tell you all about it later - or I am sure there is a website), the strawberry and orange juice I consumed at the 90% mark of the wall walk (thanks JJ) and one of two basketball courts we saw strategically nestled into the old town's packed-in buildings.

Wall walk done we wandered though the streets to the bustling harbour area and on the way paused to visit an area set aside in recognition of / to remember those killed when Dubrovnik was bombed during the 1990's war. Apart from thinking about the loss of these young men whose faces were on the walls, it was sobering to see both the devastation caused by the bombing and the compare those images with today's town and reflect on the reconstruction work in the last 20 years.

Stepping out into the sunshine, we next sought some real refreshment in a restaurant overlooking the harbour and my beer slipped down nicely while we enjoyed the people watching opportunities and listening to the mixture of languages. Then on to find the Cultural History Museum - which we did with much difficulty, hidden in the back of the buildings along the harbour, only to find it closed for repairs. So nothing more to say about that.

But there are more supposed cultural sites to visit so, after much asking of directions we found the Natural History Museum. Now I studied 'natural history' and all sorts of biology at university way back in last century so I have an interest in this field and I was pretty keen to see what was on offer. But it wasn't quite what I expected....imagine that you have /are given a collection of stuffed birds and mammals from the late 1800s and early 1900s, along with quite a comprehensive collection of shells, and you use your imagination using readily available materials, as well as accessing creative art students in years 4-10, you too could have a museum like this too.

Using bubble wrap, clear plastic bags and varying sized dome shapes they can make enough octopus-like shapes to hang from the ceiling up/through the 3 story staircase that links the 3 small levels, get them to make various dribbly inkblot paintings to decorate the walls, and then use CDs hung in tandem from the door and some shimmering light effects so you can crate a sense of the ocean to tie in with an area adjacent to the displays of fish (large and small) hung in a 3-dimensional format. Enough to make a budding MONA curator envious. Though I must say that in a very unexpected way, it was quite interesting.

That aside we did learn (sadly) about the extinct or near-extinct of some 55 Adriatic fish species, (something that we had wondered about given the large volumes of seafood on offer), various explorations to amazing depths, and a reminder of the characteristics of groups such as bivalves, crustaceans and Gastrapods. Oh it was topped off by seeing the wire and plastic wrap nautilus hanging in the entry.

After a bit of serious time with my computer making a client happy, I joined JJ for a wine/beer on the terrace in the sun. It was then that the hotel renaming (mentioned above) came into a thought bubble . Don't get me wrong, this is a great place to stay (which I recommend highly) and we chose it because I had stayed here before, I knew it was a short bus ride to the old town, I knew the view is fabulous and we saw that the price was within budget (especially when compared with alternatives). The renaming idea started with meeting the proprietor on arrival as he (like many others in the Croatian hospitality industry) was fairly short with us when we arrived, took our passports and hid them somewhere without explanation, was affronted when JJ asked for an extra towel and when I asked for an extra pillow (I can explain why but not here) I was grunted at and he suggested I check the cupboard (none there).

Generally the housekeeping and breakfast staff were fine, but when JJ and I met for an afternoon drink, the barman (who put all the cash into his wallet), who JJ had had a minor issue with, asked me what I wanted before I had read the wine list, and when I said I wanted to look at the list, he grunted and disappeared - and when he got back busied himself with many things before giving me any attention! 10 mins later I got my beer.

Then, About 10 mins after JJ and I (and a couple of dozen others) were enjoying the drinks and the afternoon sunshine, a workman took out his chainsaw and got to walk on a tree about 10 metres away from us all. This went on for about 1/2 hour! Then, as I was musing on all of these funny little things, I had to duck up to the room when I noticed the 2 trees (see pic) one at the bottom and the other at the top, but but both in the middle of the stairs! LOL! What next?

I hope my pic explains. If not I can when I see you. I had a good laugh and renamed the Vis!

Then it was dinner time. By walking across the beach we reached a very lovely long street of restaurants and bars, as well as kids playgrounds and parks, running between small, boutique summer-trade oriented hotels and large houses. Lots of people were promenading, kids playing, plenty of cats lounging and dogs being walked in the lovely evening. There were some restaurants overlooking the water but we headed further up the road and I thoroughly enjoyed my seafood spaghetti (with lots of seafood) and shared the bottle of rose with JJ.

Then we wandered back to Fawlty on the Adriatic and here I am.

But now it's time to check out the inside of my eyelids.. And dream (or have nightmares) about my first effort of driving on the right tomorrow. Wish me (and JJ in particular) luck.